The New York Art Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation is delighted to announce the opening of Actions & Intent: Documentations in Performance, a group exhibition curated by Peter Gynd.

Performance art, although ephemeral by its design, exists as an object through its method of documentation. This archive becomes not only a record of an event or action, but serves as the primary means for relaying the intent of the work. Expectations of engagement by the viewer post-performance, thus become dictated by the media through which the works are presented, serving to make the record fundamental in establishing the future experience of the work.

With an interest in exploring how modes of production and documentation in performance affect the consumption and engagement with the work, Actions and Intent: Documentations in Performance comprises a selection of artists operating within a performative practice and presents their work through the multiple channels of its reproduction and record.

Working in varied media, from performance for photo and video, to live durational action, to digital production for the web, the artists acknowledge documentation as an often unreliable archive and incorporate the modes of record into the conception of the works. Thus, the often highly visible boundary between performance performed and its documentation is blurred, inverted or denied, making the process of documenting live work its own legitimate and uniquely active artwork, existing independently from the live actions, yet connected through the same foundational intent.

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Author Spotlight

Lori Zimmer

Lori Zimmer is a New York-based curator, writer and author of The Art of Cardboard and The Art of Spraypaint by Rockport Publishers. A former Chelsea gallery sales director, she founded Art Nerd New York in 2010, which focuses on art history and ...